1. storm, charge. Attack,assail,assault,molest all mean to set upon someone forcibly, with hostile or violent intent. Attack is the most general word and applies to a beginning of hostilities, especially those definitely planned: to attack from ambush.Assail implies vehement, sudden, and sometimes repeated attack: to assail with weapons or with gossip.Assault almost always implies bodily violence: to assault with intent to kill. To molest is to harass, to threaten, or to assault: He was safe, and where no one could molest him.4. censure; impugn, oppugn, abuse. 9. onset, encounter.

attack

v.

c.1600, from French attaquer (16c.), from Florentine Italian attaccare (battaglia) "join (battle)," thus the word is a doublet of attach, which was used 15c.-17c. also in the sense now reserved to attack. Related: Attacked; attacking.